Salud mental

Print version ISSN 0185-3325

Abstract

Introduction Depression in the elderly is of interest because of its relationship with increased demand for health services, as well as the low frequency of diagnosis. Objective To determine the frequency of depressive symptoms (DS) among elderly beneficiaries in Mexico City by the revised scale of depression of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies of the United States (CES-DR) and the Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Materials and methods In the first phase of the study we evaluated the presence of significant DS with the 30-item GDS. Those with scores of 11 or more were considered positive and were included in the second phase. In this phase were added a random sample with negative scores. All participants completed the second phase of the revised CES-DR. The 80 percentile was used in this study with a cut-off of 57 points. Results A total of 7449 elderly were included in the first phase. The prevalence of reported significant DS with the GDS was 21.7% (n = 1.616) (IC-95%, 20.4-23.0). The sample for the second phase included 2 923 elderly. The mean age was 70.8 years, 61.7% were women. Twelve percent (95% CI, 9.2-15.3) showed significant DS of major depression, 7.5% (95% CI, 6.3-8.9) was rated as probable, 17.2% (95% CI, 13.022.3) possible, 2.6% (95% CI, 2.2-3.1) sub-threshold depression episode and 60.7% (95% CI, 56.2-65.1) with no significant DS episodes of major depression. Significant frequency of major depression SD is presented using the GDS and CESDR was 6.5% (95% CI, 3.3-12.4). Conclusions The expression of the identified significant SD CES-DR is different from what is reported to the GDS. The CES-DR is more sensitive and specific to identify the presence of depressive symptoms.